Photographs of the mortally injured Princess Diana, taken by paparazzi photographers while she was trapped in the wreckage of her Mercedes limousine in a Paris underpass, were shown to the jury at her inquest at the high court yesterday.

Although the pictures were offered for sale immediately after the crash and before the princess's death, they have never previously been shown in public. Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, ordered that they should not be released for publication.

The photographs, shown on the seventh day of hearings, were pixelated to obscure the princess's face but showed her hair and her position on the floor of the car beside the back seat. Other images shown to the jury depicted a photographer squatting beside the open door of the car and indicated that pictures were taken through the windows before the doors had been opened to reach the casualties.

Tracks through the debris appeared to show that the photographers who followed the Mercedes had passed it after the crash and then returned to take pictures. Photographs taken a few minutes later showed the French emergency doctor Frédéric Mailliez tending to the princess.

The coroner said: "Although ordinarily everything that the jury hears and sees will go almost immediately on the inquest website, these ... will not ... for the reason that it is possible for photographs that have been pixelated to be unpixelated if they get into certain hands."

Michael Mansfield QC, representing Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, the princess's companion, who was killed instantly in the crash, told the jury: "It is perfectly clear ... that the paparazzi who were present at the scene ... had no compunction about taking photographs of the victims both inside the car and being carried outside the car."

Richard Keen QC, representing the parents of the driver, Henri Paul, asked Inspector Paul Carpenter of the Metropolitan police, who showed the pictures to the jury: "Would you agree that the paparazzi tend to fire off their cameras at the first opportunity of the shot they are looking for?" The officer replied: "Yes, if you examine the photographs that would certainly appear to be the case."

The day's hearing concerned testimony from witnesses to the crash in the Alma tunnel on August 31 1997. One, Thierry Hackett, who had been driving the same route, told the inquest via a videolink from Paris that he saw the Mercedes swerve as though hindered by motorbikes, though he admitted his memory was now vague.

Another driver, David Laurent, said he had heard a hooting noise, followed by braking and a crash, but had driven on, thinking it was not serious. His fiancee, Nathalie Blanchard, told the French police in a statement at the time: "I heard several noises, a fairly long burst from a horn, a squealing of tyres and a crash of metal. I turned around; I think I was the only person who did. I couldn't see anything, neither a crashed car nor a small car."